Download 20995

FINANCE LAW
(20995) 2014-2015
Degree awarded: Degree in Law
Academic year: second
Term: third
Number of ECTS credits 6
Student hours: 150
To satisfy community needs such as education, health and welfare benefits public
bodies have to spend money and to raise the revenue necessary to finance their
spending. The financial activity of public bodies in its double aspect of spending and
revenue is Finance Law’s object of study. Students therefore study tax office activity,
using legal content and method and taking into account the context of the European
Union, the regional distribution of financial power and the principles of justice in public
revenue and spending provided for in the constitution.
The most important legal institutions in this double-sided question of public spending
and revenue are budgetary provision and taxation respectively. However, taxation (and
income tax, its most important category) is not the only resource available to public
bodies for raising revenue. In a situation of public deficit, recourse to debt in the form
of providing government guarantees and the search for alternative means of funding
infrastructures and public services such as public-private collaboration are becoming
more important all the time. It is worth mentioning that the European Union sets
important restrictions on these resources, in compliance with the principle of budgetary
stability.
These are some of the issues that are studied on "Finance Law", students’ first contact
with the discipline of finance and tax law. Key aspects are also introduced which are
developed on other related courses within the discipline, both compulsory, ("Tax Law")
and optional (the five subjects making up the “Finance and Tax Law” optional
pathway). By means of various activities throughout the course students will learn about
the importance and practical implications this situation’s legal system has in our current
economic and social environment.
Topic 1. Public spending and the resources for its financing.
Topic 2. Public spending and budgetary law.
Topic 3. The law on public revenue.
Topic a 4. Financial power.
Topic 5. Tax systems and the European Union.